Leonel Suarez of Cuba in the decathlon shot, setting his third PB of the day (© Getty Images)
Tallin21yearold Dutchman Eelco Sintnicolaas was the surprise winner of the Reval Hotels Cup European Athletics Permit meet in combined events.
He improved his best to 6036 points total and this result will most probably lead to his qualification for the European Indoor Championships in Torino. It is also European lead of the year.
He scored the best result in three events, the Long Jump, 60m Hurdles and Pole Vault and achieved three indoor PBs – his complete results being 6.96-7.49-13.90-1.89-7.93-5.15-2:44.51).
Estonia’s Andres Raja also improved his personal best to 5966 points in second and has a good chance for Torino. Cuban Olympic medallist Leonel Suarez was third with a national record 5959, including a High Jump best of 2.16m.
European bronze medallist from 2006 Aleksey Drozdov was the overnight leader mainly because of his Shot Put (17.06, overall PB) but at the end he finished fourth (5796). There was a personal best also for fifth place Estonia’s Tarmo Riitmuru (5743) and Cuba’s Yordanis Garcia (5729, he was best at 60m clocking 6.89). It was the Cubans first time in indoor heptathlon.
Germany’s 2006 World indoor champion Andre Niklaus fouled three times in the Long Jump.
Two national records were registered in the women’s Pentathlon. Crowds were happy for Kaie Kand who improved the Estonian mark to 4580 points and is now almost certainly qualified for Torino. Her marks: 8.59-178-13.52-623-2:11.23, were all personal bests.
Yvonne Wisse of the Netherlands was second (4536) and Latvian Aiga Grabuste scored a national record for third (4463) with Czech Denisa Rosolova fourth (4309).
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
